David Bratman

There’s something for everyone in the music on a new two-CD set that explores a hidden (and openly honest) side of Shostakovich: his movie scoring.

The small but powerful S.F. Chamber Orchestra brings the virtues of midperiod Beethoven to top of mind.

Most string quintets, other than Schubert's, don't get played often. The San Francisco Symphony Chamber Musicians have the personnel to do it.

Schoenberg does Brahms, reimagining and revoicing a delightful piano quartet.

The S.F. Symphony delivers an excellent program displaying Schubert’s varied moods and idioms.

The Redwood Symphony offers Lorin Maazel's "symphonic synthesis" of the whole Ring cycle: It's like an hour-long Richard Strauss tone poem, except it's by Wagner.

Shaham and his Strad and J.S. Bach: a canny combination of brilliance and satisfying music-making.

Alongside Haydn and Schubert, the St. Lawrence Quartet comes up against a Golijov work that’s intriguing but unfinished.

The Sphinx Virtuosi opened the Stanford Lively Arts' season in a concert that was an exercise in overcoming cultural stereotypes by an orchestra of complete professionalism, winning personality, and a commitment to understanding works by old masters.

The South Bay's major premiere of the season is a new work by the leading Argentinian-born composer Osvaldo Golijov, performed by the St. Lawrence String Quartet in the Stanford Lively Arts series.